We keep San Francisco's Vintage Streetcars on Track

Menu

Historic Streetcars in San Francisco

No.1056

Kansas City, Missouri-Kansas

Built 1948 • Operational • Tribute livery

This car is painted in tribute to Kansas City, which ran PCC streetcars from 1941 to 1957. Kansas City’s PCCs – 184 in all – were painted to emphasize their modern lines, with a black ‘swoosh’ on the sides to highlight the logo of Kansas City Public Service Company (KCPS), which featured Frederic Remington’s famed sculpture “The Scout” on a red heart.
KCPS initially planned for a PCC fleet of 371 cars, but only 24 had been delivered by America’s entry into World War II. As in other cities, war production priorities deferred dreams of all-PCC service in Kansas City.
After the war, KCPS took delivery of 160 more PCCs, though they almost cancelled some of those because of shaky finances.
Kansas City is actually two municipalities split by the Missouri-Kansas border. KCPS streetcars served both, but rapidly lost ridership as people moved to the suburbs, beyond the ends of the lines. Kansas City’s 25 streetcar lines dwindled to three, which finally ceased service in 1957. One of the three was the famous 56-Country Club–known as the ‘Club Line’–which wound south from downtown on an old steam railroad right-of-way, sharing its tracks with electric freight trains.

Many of Kansas City’s PCCs were scrapped after unsuccessful attempts to find buyers. (Muni was approached to buy the last 41 PCCs in 1957, but declined, lacking the funding.) But some Kansas City PCCs were sold to other cities, including Toronto. Eleven of these ended up at Muni after all, coming third-hand in 1970 to help carry streetcar passengers on the J, K, L, M, and N lines on detours that were required to build the Market Street subway. These ex-Kansas City PCCs ran in San Francisco between 1973 and 1979, as Nos. 1180 to 1190, before being retired. Most were subsequently scrapped.
One ex-Kansas City streetcar that ran in San Francisco was sold to the Western Railway Museum in Solano County. It was later returned to Kansas City.
Of all the cars acquired for the original 1995 F-line fleet (numbered 1050-1063), Car No. 1056 had seen the least service (except for 1054, which was damaged beyond repair when struck by an LRV in 2001). The 1056 itself was sidelined for several years by an accident in the early 2000s, and was then pulled from service around 2010 when a major structural member underneath was found to be cracked. As the car in poorest condition, it was the first car to be sent to Brookville Equipment Company, in August 2016, for a thorough rebuilding as part of a $34.5 million contract covering renovation of the original F-line fleet. Returning to San Francisco in August 2016, it re-entered passenger service on March 16, 2017, following testing and acceptance.